Dasari Srinivasa Rao Vijayawada

TheAnti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) officials of the Vijayawada Range on Tuesday caught a Deputy Tahsildar red-handed while allegedly accepting a bribe of Rs10,000 at the Tahsildar’s office in G Konduru mandal of NTR district.

The accused officer, Pendem Vijaya Kumar (48), Deputy Tahsildar of G Konduru mandal, allegedly demanded Rs 10,000 from a 28-year-old complainant, Chinni Najarenu Rao of Ajit Singh Nagar, Vijayawada, for carrying out official work related to his agricultural land.

According to the ACB, the complainant approached the officer seeking corrections in the Adangal records relating to his land in Survey No 524-B at Vellaturu village and processing of a Pattadar Passbook in his name. The officer allegedly demanded the bribe for extending the official favour.

Acting on the complaint, the ACB registered a case under Section 7 of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988, as amended in 2018. A trap was laid by ACB Additional SP Sravanthi Roy and DAP BV Subba Rao at around 2.05 pm on Tuesday at the Tahsildar’s office in G Konduru, during which the officer was caught red-handed while allegedly demanding and accepting the amount.

Srabanthi Roy said Vijaya Kumar joined the Revenue Department as a Junior Assistant in 2005 and was promoted as Revenue Inspector in 2011. He was promoted as Deputy Tahsildar in 2017 and had been working in G Konduru mandal since July 7, 2022.

She appealed to the public to report corruption in government departments through its toll-free number 1064, mobile number 9440440057 or email complaints-acb@ap.gov.in. She assured that the identity of complainants and informants would be kept confidential.